EON Energy for the Elderly and Vulnerable

[Deleted User]

Hi all, I have just discovered my 92 year old father has been able to build up a credit of over £970 which he can ill afford. He pays by cash, was told to pay £35 years ago and has done this since. The meter has been estimated since 2012. He does not understand his electricity bills (who does??). He has not been advised or put on cheaper tariffs. He doesn't do direct debit or the internet.:mad:

Surely EON has some responsibility to its elderly and vulnerable customers?

Robin9

Take control of his account yourself - set up online billing and submit your readings. Claim a refund.

I had to do this for my MIL and also arranged for smart meters to save having to let people into the house.

victor2

E.On do have better customer service than many suppliers in my experience.
There should have been at least 1 or more actual readings since 2012, as suppliers are obliged to inspect/read them at least once every two years I believe.
I would contact E.On and arrange for permission from your father for you to act on the account on his behalf. If you phone them with him present, they should then tell you what is needed to do that, a simple letter when I did it for a relative.
Then sort out the current readings and account balance. If he is in credit, you can probably get him a refund. Also ask them what is their best tariff for him to be on given that he doesn't want to pay by DD.
They may suggest installing smart meter(s) for him. That eliminates estimated bills and means nobody has to take the trouble to regularly read the meters. Currently, the smart meters only work with the supplier who had them installed, so it means if he changes supplier, they are no longer smart, but still can be used as "dumb" meters.
However, they will install them at no cost to your father, so it might be worth looking into.

Edit:
E.On can put customers on a "Priority Service Register". Details at
https://www.eonenergy.com/for-your-home/help-and-support/extra-help

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Hi katebey and welcome to the forum.

victor2 and Robin9 have given some very good advice here so thank for this.

If you could contact us with your father we can discuss the account over the phone with you, (with your fathers permission) we can then send out a letter of authority so you'll be a named person and can discuss the account whenever you need to.

To start getting the account in order the first thing to do is to read the meter. We may have tried to read the meter but not been able to for a number of reasons, these are the things that can be looked at when going through the account in detail.

I understand he's had a problem understanding the bills, but this is also where we do advise of other tariff's that we have available. We can't just change customers on to a tariff without speaking to them at the time as we have to go through the actual contract.

As Robin9 has said, you can manage the account online (with your fathers consent), this will give you full control of the account. You can pop reads in, produce real time bills or balances, look at tariff's usage and loads more.

Then as victor2 says, ask us about smart meters, if you look at the website (I'm sorry I can't post links:o) you'll see if the property is eligible for this.

There may be other bits and bobs as well, like warm home discount, priory services register, these things are all on the website.

But first things first, get the account billed up to date and see if we can see why the meters hasn't been read.

I'm here to help.

Helena

Robin9

Kateby- could the electricity bill be the tip of the iceberg ?

Gas, house insurance, old standing orders, telephone .........

backfoot

katebey wrote: »

Hi all, I have just discovered my 92 year old father has been able to build up a credit of over £970 which he can ill afford. He pays by cash, was told to pay £35 years ago and has done this since. The meter has been estimated since 2012. He does not understand his electricity bills (who does??). He has not been advised or put on cheaper tariffs. He doesn't do direct debit or the internet.:mad:

Surely EON has some responsibility to its elderly and vulnerable customers?

If the actual meter reading exceeds those that have been estimated he may be entitled to have the excess amount written off under the 'Backbilling Rules'. Eon appear not to have obtained actual readings over a four year period.

It is shocking that Eon and other Supplier's have such a huge differential in price between the standard and online tariffs. This exploits elderly and vulnerable customers such as your relative.

I have to say that it surprises me that your intervention has come so late and you should take charge of this and other services to prevent the exploitation such as this.

backfoot

I find it astonishing that the OP hasn't commented further, either back to the Eon Rep or other posters given that they have gone out of their way to advise.

This is a case involving relatively large sums of money for an elderly vulnerable customer, so I am interested in the outcome.

The OP hasn't even logged back in since writing the tale of woe !

I certainly would like to know , whether Eon accept that not obtaining a reading for four years opens themselves up to a potential backbilling claim/deduction?

I know that they won't comment on an individual case without examining it. However, this seems to be covered in one of the 'backbilling scenarios' and therefore they could comment in the generality.

The lack of meter readings and the inherent consequence upon a customer being sent a large backbill based on a standard tariff, causes me great concern and I am not even remotely connected to this customer.:(

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

To be honest backfoot I would like to help and I'm here if the OP would like me to.

I wouldn't know if the back billing code would apply in this case or not, it all depends as you know.

As well as that, there was a few other things I mentioned in my earlier post, like the warm home discount, rewards etc these things will also help.

Thanks for helping on the thread as well.

Helena

backfoot

Helena,

No criticism of you is implied at all.You are always helpful and open to help customers and forum posters.

In relation to backbilling, I was only trying to consolidate my own undertanding of the rules, in the context of the absence of meter readings over an extended period. The exact circumstances will determine the resolution but I note that you haven't said it is a non starter.

It is important for me as a volunteer poster and advisor to make sure the advise is of use and relevant. Many customers, especially the vulnerable, are not aware of some of these rules, which can assist in very difficult financial circumstances.

Keep up the good work. I only wish other Suppliers had got their social media policy as smart as yours.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

backfoot wrote: »

Helena,

No criticism of you is implied at all.You are always helpful and open to help customers and forum posters.

In relation to backbilling, I was only trying to consolidate my own undertanding of the rules, in the context of the absence of meter readings over an extended period. The exact circumstances will determine the resolution but I note that you haven't said it is a non starter.

It is important for me as a volunteer poster and advisor to make sure the advise is of use and relevant. Many customers, especially the vulnerable, are not aware of some of these rules, which can assist in very difficult financial circumstances.

Keep up the good work. I only wish other Suppliers had got their social media policy as smart as yours.

That's a super nice thing to say, thanks

You're right, I haven't said one way or the other as I don't want to say the wrong thing when I don't know the facts.

I agree, we also try and give as much information and advice as we can because we know lot's of people and customers read and it's important to us to get the correct information out there.

You know we can't really promote stuff specifically, that's why it's so good to have you guys helping out

Helena